BJP, PDP seal the deal; saffron colour in Jammu & Kashmir governance for the first time

New Delhi: After nearly two months of hemming and hawing on framing a common minimum programme, achhe Din (Good Days) have finally come for the BJP that the saffron party for the first time will participate in governance in Jammu and Kashmir. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Peoples Democratic Party have sealed the deal, announcing their alliance for forming a “popular’’ government in Jammu and Kashmir.

PM Modi, who stormed to power in May, 2014, personally addressed election rallies in the northern Indian state in the run-up to the vote last December, aiming to bring the heavily militarised Himalayan region into the Indian mainstream, a long-running goal of his right-wing party.

But no party won a clear majority. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a record 25 seats, while the regional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 28 seats in the state's 87-seat assembly.

Two months of complex negotiations between party leaders on how to share power concluded on Tuesday, with both sides finally agreeing to govern jointly, despite their differing ideologies.

Unlike the BJP, the PDP promotes a policy of self-rule for Jammu and Kashmir and of engaging in talks with militant separatists in the state.

The two sides have formed an alliance to work out a common programme that focuses on welfare and leaves aside traditionally contentious issues, including the size of the Indian military's presence in the state.

"The deadlock that existed on some issues has been broken and we will form the government in Kashmir," BJP president Amit Shah told reporters in New Delhi.

Party officials in Srinagar, the state's summer capital, said the BJP had agreed to sideline a long-standing pledge to scrap Article 370, a constitutional provision that grants the state special status and allows it to make its own laws.